Leadership

ISTSS is run by a committed group of elected and unelected volunteers from the various trauma-related disciplines around the world. The organization is governed by: Board of Directorsconsisting of 21 members, including a membership-elected Executive Committee and several ex-officio (non-voting) members.

Each year, ISTSS holds an open election to fill expiring board terms and the President-Elect position. Board Members serve a three year term and the President serves for one year.

Secretary

To promote communication and exchange of knowledge within and beyond ISTSS through development in new media and communication technology. Executive Liaison to: Online Learning, Journal of Traumatic Stress (JTS) Editor, Traumatic StressPoints Editor, Website Editor and Social Networking Administrator

Treasurer

Past-President

To guide development of an organizational model that is responsive to issues, members and stakeholders from all nations. Executive Liaison to: Nominations Committee, International Structure & Affiliations Committee, World Congress Meeting (Mexico City), Global Initiative Task Force, Organizational Excellence Task Force and Complex Trauma Task Force.

2017-2018 Executive Committee

Diane Elmore Borbon, PhD, MPH
President
Board Term 2016-2019

Dr. Diane Elmore Borbon is the Washington, DC-based Director of the Policy Program for the UCLA-Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, which coordinates the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). She is also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the American University. Her work focuses on the translation and dissemination of scientific and clinical knowledge to policymakers, government leaders, and key decision makers on public health and trauma policy issues to address the needs of underserved populations.

Ananda Amstadter, PhD
Vice President
Board Term 2015-2018

Dr. Amstadter is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Human & Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She is also the Assistant Director of Veteran's Research for VCU's Center for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering. Her program of research focuses on understanding biologic and psychosocial factors that affect the trajectory of symptoms among individuals exposed to trauma (e.g., combat, disasters, interpersonal violence) with a focus on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol-related phenotypes.

Amy Street, PhD
Treasurer
Board Term 2017-2020

Dr. Street is a clinical psychologist and the Deputy Director of the Women’s Health Sciences Division, National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Street has an active program of research investigating the causes and correlates of interpersonal trauma, including sexual harassment, sexual assault and intimate partner violence in veteran and civilian populations.

Carolina Salgado, MD
Secretary
Term 2015-2018

Dr. Carolina Salgado is the president of the recently formed Chilean Association of Traumatic Stress. She was one of the primary initiators and coordinators of the first international meeting of traumatic stress held last year with ISTSS in Chile. She is the clinical psychiatrist at the Trauma Center of the Psychology Department of the University of Talca and at the Out-Patient Public Mental Health Center (COSAM) in Talca, Chile, also, an adjunct professor at the Medical School of the University of Talca. Her research investigations focus on early trauma and its impact on the psychopathology development during adulthood and/or IPV (intimate partner violence) involving patients from both public and private mental health services.

Meaghan O'Donnell, PhD
Immediate Past President
Board Term 2015-2018

Dr. O'Donnell is the Director of Research at the Phoenix Australia-Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health. She is Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne. Her major areas of research include early interventions after trauma exposure, phenomenology of traumatic stress responses, and understanding disability after trauma exposure.

Julian D. Ford, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.
President-Elect
Board Term 2017-2019

Dr. Ford is a board certified clinical psychologist and tenured Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and School of Law where he is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice and the Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. His work focuses on developing and validating psychometric assessments (including the Traumatic Events Screening Instrument, and the Developmental Trauma Disorder Structured Interview) and psychosocial interventions (including TARGET: Trauma Affect Regulation-Guide for Education and Therapy, and PCT: Present Centered Therapy) for traumatized youth, adults and families, as well as clinical epidemiological studies traumatic victimization and healthcare utilization.

2017-2018 Board of Directors

Maureen A. Allwood, PhD
Board Term 2015-2018

Dr. Allwood is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY). Her research and clinical interests focus on the developmental effects of trauma and violence exposure in youth, particularly youth living in high-stress urban settings. She is interested in both the psychological and biological consequences of trauma exposure and how multiple factors and systems (e.g., cognitive, emotional, physiological) interact to predict negative outcomes, such as school failure, delinquency, substance use, poor health, and suicide among trauma-exposed youth. Her work also focuses on the impact of trauma exposure on minority, immigrant, and refugee mental health, and the accessibility to culturally competent, trauma- and developmentally-informed services.

T.H. Eric Bui, MD, PhD
Board Term 2017-2020

Dr. Bui is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and currently serves as the Interim Director for Research at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders and Complicated Grief Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as the Associate Director for Research at Home Base, a Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital program. His research focuses on improving our understanding and treatment of stressor-related conditions, such as PTSD and Complicated Grief.

Jeong-Ho Chae, MD, PhD
Board Term 2017-2020

Dr. Chae is the Chairperson and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, The Catholic University of Korea. His research and clinical interests focus on the resilience and recovery after trauma. He is a principal investigator of the National Trauma and Disaster Cohort Registry funded by Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare that is a large scale prospective study for registering subjects with trauma experiences. He is the founding president of Korean Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (KSTSS) and a chairman of the Trauma and Mental Health Committee of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association.

Joanne L. Davis, PhD
Board Term 2017-2020

Dr. Davis is the Executive Director of The University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity, and Injustice (TITAN), Director of the Trauma Research, Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment Center (TRAPT) and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at The University of Tulsa. Her research interests include the assessment, treatment, and prevention of interpersonal violence and its effects. In recent years she has focused on the assessment and treatment of chronic nightmares and other sleep disturbances in trauma-exposed persons.

Erika Felix, PhD
Board Term 2017-2020

Dr. Felix is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a licensed psychologist in private practice. Her research centers on understanding the individual, relational, and contextual factors that promote positive youth development or recovery despite contexts of risk, trauma, or stress. Her work spans three related areas: (1) promoting adaptive recovery for youth following disaster, terrorism, or other collectively-experienced traumas, (2) youth victimization and its consequences, and (3) research and evaluation to improve community-based services. She has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, private foundations, and local community organizations. She is engaged in systems change and advocacy work to address human trafficking, and serves on the Santa Barbara County Human Trafficking Taskforce.

Brian J. Hall, PhD
Board Term 2016-2019

Dr. Hall is the Director of the Global and Community Mental Health Research Group at the University of Macau, in Macau (SAR), China, where he is an Assistant Professor of Psychology. He is a Research Associate in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and holds a visiting professorship at the Sun Yat-sen School of Public Health, in the Center for Migrant Health Policy, in Guangzhou, China. His research focuses on epidemiologic investigations into social determinants of population health, the consequences of adversity and traumatic stress, and developing and evaluating culturally appropriate interventions to address health disparities among migrants and other marginalized populations.

Debra L. Kaysen, PhD, ABPP
Board Term 2015-2018

Dr. Kaysen is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department with adjunct positions in the Departments of Psychology and of Global Health at the University of Washington. She is the Depression Therapy Research Endowed Professor for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Kaysen’s research is situated at the interface of PTSD and addictions and includes both etiologic and prevention/treatment-oriented studies. Other research addresses issues regarding issues around trauma exposure and care among diverse communities, including research with lesbian and bisexual women, research with Native American communities, and work in adapting evidence based treatments for use in low and medium income countries.

Justin Kenardy, PhD
Board Term 2015-2018

Dr Justin Kenardy is Professor at the School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia. His research is mainly in the areas of the interface between physical health and psychological trauma across the range of ages.

Yoshiharu Kim, MD, PhD
Board Term 2015-2018

Dr. Kim is the President, National Center of Disaster Mental Health and works in close collaboration with Japanese government to promote effective treatment of PTSD and elaborate post-disaster countermeasures, as well as to educate mental health care professionals, in addition to doing trauma treatment himself. He is one of the founders of the Japanese Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (JSTSS) and was the president of its launching congress in 2002, and formed an affiliation with ISTSS during his presidency in 2006.

Markus A. Landolt, PhD
Board Term 2015-2018

Dr. Landolt is the Head of Pediatric Psychology at the University Children's Hospital in Zurich (Switzerland) and an Extraordinary Professor for Child and Adolescent Health Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Zurich. His clinical work as well as his research focuses on various topics of trauma in children and adolescents (incl. very young children), specifically on understanding the impact of medical trauma and maltreatment on children and on developing early screening measures and interventions for injured children, adolescents, and their families.

Brian P. Marx, PhD
Board Term 2016-2019

Dr. Marx is a Psychologist/Investigator for the Behavioral Science Division of the National Center for PTSD in the VA Boston Healthcare System. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry for Boston University School of Medicine.

Jasmine Pang, DPsych(Clin)
Board Term 2017-2018

Jasmine Pang is Clinical Psychologist, Benchmark Psychology, Australia. She is passionate about ensuring children, young people and families who have experienced traumatic experiences receive high quality services on their journey to recovery. Pang has worked with child protection, foster care, social services, juvenile justice and hospital services as a clinician and clinical supervisor where she has greatly valued multi-disciplinary perspectives. She has helped to facilitate training link ups for various programs and trainers within the ISTSS community including helping to kick off a large-scale implementation of TF-CBT in Singapore which has since expanded and grown. In 2016, Pang helped to facilitate and was on the organizing committee of the joint ISTSS/TRaCS conference in Singapore.

Christian Schmahl, MD
Board Term 2017-2020

Christian Schmahl is Professor of Experimental Psychopathology and Medical Director of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Ontario. His research focuses on emotion regulation, self-injurious behavior and dissociation as well as the interaction of neurobiology and psychotherapy in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder. His clinical programs focus on the treatment of adolescent and adult patients with complex PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Soraya Seedat is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and the executive head of the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa. She holds the South African Research Chair in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Her research focuses on gene-brain-environmental factors that are contributory to increasing or decreasing individual risk for PTSD and on evaluating psychotherapeutic interventions for youth PTSD that can be scaled up in low resource contexts.

Marit Sijbrandij, PhD
Board Term 2016-2019

Dr. Sijbrandij is Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical, Neuro- and Developmental Psychology of the VU University Amsterdam. Her research is focused on the prevention, early detection and treatment of posttraumatic stress symptoms following trauma in a global context. She is also board member of the Dutch Society of Traumatic Stress.